Speaking in on the Late Football Club earlier this week, Lille owner Gérard Lopez discussed the failed managerial spell that Marcelo Bielsa endured last season when the Luxembourg businessman had newly purchased the club.

Click Here: Brisbane Broncos Team Jersey

“I had a very good relationship with Marcelo outside of football. Clearly, he expressed to me his desire to do something different to what he had already done up to that point by being part of a project from the beginning. And then it did not work for lots of reasons. It did not work out well because I maybe gave him too much power and freedom within the club, the results weren’t there and he refused to sign the players that we proposed to him. The mistakes were mine because it was me who accepted to do things like that. But it is true that at the beginning, he was ready to do something different to what he had previously done.”

“During one of the first discussions that I had with him, he told me: “I will come and work on a Spanish 2nd division side with you if that is what is necessary.” So, the idea was never to create media attention. It was to have a manager who is more a teacher for young players. The problem, right up until the end, was that we had that, but were missing everything else.”